


First Year

by Jerry_Larchive



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 06:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12475264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jerry_Larchive/pseuds/Jerry_Larchive
Summary: April Kepner is a first year Intern at Mercy West Medical Center. Along with fellow interns Jackson Avery, Charles Percy, and Reed Adamson, she has a lot to learn about being a doctor. Fortunately for her, her first rotation is with Internal Medicine Resident Brad Parker, who teaches her there is more to being a doctor than she ever considered. And what he passed on to her ends up affecting the rest of her life and career. Years later, Brad becomes her patient at Seattle Grace and delivers one last lesson.





	First Year

April Kepner was still getting used to Seattle's cool and wet climate. Moving into the apartment she shared with Reed, another new Mercy West intern, she had found the back wall of the closet in her room covered with black mold. 'Borrowing' a surgical mask from the hospital, April had spent half a morning scrubbing the wall with bleach until she was sure it was mold free. Only then would she unpack her suitcases and hang her clothes but it would be weeks before she would quit the daily inspection for the molds return. Fortunately, Mercy West, while an old facility, was kept spotlessly clean, so April didn't have to deal with any hygiene issues at work.

In fact, work was her favorite place to be anyway. If she could have spent every moment there, she would have. For one thing, it was interesting. Finally done with the classroom, she felt she was getting hands-on experience at last and, even though it was ninety nine percent scut for the new interns, she was soaking up new information and experiences.

Work also offered her the only opportunities she had to be around other people. Her roommate, Reed, she got along with pretty well, but they were too different to be close friends or pal around much. Reed spent most of her free time on the prowl for guys and, judging by the sounds emanating from her room most nights, she was good at what she did in that department.

April, on the other hand, was as far removed from that lifestyle as could be, short of living in a convent. A virgin, intent on waiting for Mr Right and avoiding as many Mr Wrongs as possible, April had proved to be a poor wingman for Reed, who had quit inviting her to the bars once that became apparent. To her credit, April didn't resent her for it, and was frankly happy not to have to pretend that scene was something she enjoyed.

The hospital, though, offered a relatively safe environment for interacting with others, though she had heard that Jackson Avery fellow tell their fellow intern, Charles, that it was a _target rich environment_ while they quite obviously tracked a group of nurses down a hallway. She had spotted that guy for a _player_ right from the git go and made a point of giving him a wide berth, not that a guy like that would ever give her a second look.

She, however, had found a guy worthy of a second look, and a third, and fourth, and so on. Bradley Parker was a second year Internal Medicine Resident, and April had found herself on his service for her first rotation. While no surgical intern particularly appreciated the non-surgical rotations, it had been a stroke of luck. Though she wasn't interested in Internal Med, she had watched all the other interns foundering and complaining about their rotations and Residents, while Brad had done everything possible to help April make the jump into Mercy West. That Jackson fellow had been one of the worst complainers. She doubted he would last, despite his Avery heritage.

April, on the other hand, had gotten off to a fine start, with Doctor Parker, Brad, as she had been told time and time again, calling on her repeatedly and coaching her whenever she needed it. He seemed so completely at ease in his work that she took comfort that eventually the enormity of the job would soon give way for her too. Meanwhile, she had filled up two notebooks already. Doctor...Brad, rather, had complimented her on her initiative in taking such copious notes and the next day the other interns on the rotation had all showed up with notebooks. Never before had someone in authority like that, held her up as an example of excellence. It had been thrilling and caused her to blush proudly for an hour at least.

Unexpectedly, she found the differential diagnosis she was learning in Internal Meds to be quite fascinating and realized it would make a good foundation for her surgical practice as well. The broad spectrum of diseases she was encountering taught her to avoid getting to narrow too fast in considering the cause of the patient's distress. She was challenged with symptoms far broader and less obvious than she would be when she went through her cardio rotation, for example. She likened Internal Med to being more like a detective.

The other thing Brad Parker was teaching his interns she found most valuable of all. There was a patient who came into the hospital complaining of a flu that just would not go away.

“I think he's just got a bad case of the flu.” April, who Parker had made lead on the case, told the group.

“Anyone disagree?” Brad asked. There were no takers.

“Is this flu season?” he asked.

The interns looked at each other. It was April who spoke up. “No, but you can get the flu regardless. And maybe he just came from somewhere it is flu season.”

“Valid points.” he answered. “So we should probably ask him if he's traveled anywhere recently, right? By the way, that's a pretty good question to put in your standard examination.”

The interns all nodded. April scribbled in her notebook.

“Anything else about this case that might make you question the flu diagnosis or want to dig deeper?”

The interns looked at each other uncomfortably. They knew Parker well enough now to know he was indicating there should be. What had they missed?

“What did we notice about the patient himself, aside from the clinical symptoms and vital stats?”

“Good hygiene.” volunteered one of the group.

“Good, that can be a telling sign.” encouraged Parker. “What else?”

When no other observations were forthcoming, he prompted them again. “Who brought the patient in?”

“His partner.” replied April.

“Good. So we know he's gay. What does that tell us?”

“He's in a higher risk group for HIV.” answered April. Her strict religious upbringing had left her a little uncomfortable dealing with the LGTBQ community, though since coming to progressive Seattle she had begun to question what her conservative pastor in Moline had said about “those” people.

“So Kepner, how does that affect your diagnosis?”

“We'll want to test for Stage 1 HIV.” she answered.

“Booya!” Parker was very fond of the expression. “People, it's really important to look beyond the symptoms and see the whole person. Stage 1 sometimes presents as flu symptoms, but not always. And Stage 2 is usually asymptomatic, and Stage 3 just sucks, so getting a chance to catch this fucker in Stage 1 is a very lucky break. Kepner, order the tests and lets see if we got something.”

When the test came back positive for HIV, Parker asked April is she wanted to accompany him in delivering the news to the patient.

“Sure.” she had promptly answered. After all she had helped catch this thing in the early stages when it was easiest to treat and control. Surely the patient would be grateful.

“Okay, but this is going to be a tough one. Just warning you.” he had replied.

April was puzzled. “What? Why? Sure HIV is a tough thing to accept but we're catching it early enough that he'll likely never suffer from full blown AIDs. That's good news, right?”

Doctor Parker looked at her. “April, do you have a boyfriend?”

“Doctor Parker, that is not an appropriate question.” said the shocked intern.

“I didn't think so. But if you did, how would you feel about being diagnosed with an STD?”

“I don't understand.” she replied.

Brad Parker sighed. “The patient and his partner are wearing wedding rings. They are in a committed relationship.”

“So?”

Kepner was usually much quicker than this. “April, unless one or both of them are intravenous drug users, which they don't appear to be, they are in a less committed relationship than they think they are. That will probably hurt worse than the diagnosis.” Brad patiently explained.

“Oh.” April answered. It had never occurred to her that a gay couple would have just as much trouble dealing with infidelity as a straight couple.

Doctor Parker's prediction proved to be correct. When they left the patients room, there were tears and angry words and none of them had to do with the disease itself.

  
  


After just two weeks it was generally acknowledged that Brad Parker was the best Resident at Mercy West, something April was telling another intern in the locker room when Jackson and Charles walked in.

They overheard April's praise for the Internal Med Resident and Charles pantomimed putting his finger down his throat. Jackson laughed. “Oh, Doctor Brad,” he said in a high falsetto, “you are just sooo wonderful. Can I service you all the time? I mean can I be on your service all the time?”

Charles and Jackson bumped fists on that one.

April shot them an unapproving look. “Pay no attention to them. They're just jealous. Their Resident hates them. The way they're going they won't be around very long anyway.”

Charles looked at Jackson in alarm. “Wait, they can't throw us out after only two weeks, can they?”

Jackson shook his head and scowled at April. “Kepner doesn't know what she's talking about. We're not getting tossed.”

April smiled. “You hope.”

Just then Reed walked into the locker room and immediately Charles quit talking to stare at her.

“Stalker much?” April asked. She had noticed the abrupt diversion of the burly intern's attention.

“Dude,” Jackson chided his friend, “uncool. Chill a little will you?”

But Charles hadn't been able to hide his crush on Reed from day one. Reed, well aware of his attention, looked back over her shoulder at April and smiled.

“I still say you should report him for creating a hostile workplace.” April told her roommate.

That got Charles attention to briefly divert from Reed. “What? Hostile what? Is that a real thing?”

April turned toward him. “You just watched a twenty minute video about harassment two weeks ago.”

Jackson shook his head. “He only watched the first two minutes and then he figured out it was anti harassment training, not harassment training.”

“You are both pigs, you know that, right?”

“I'll take that as a compliment.” Jackson retorted. “Pigs are highly intelligent, I'm told.” He had overheard April telling Reed about her experiences with pigs back home in Moline.

It was April's turn to shake her head in annoyance. “Compliment? And you're trying to teach ME about pigs?”

Jackson opened his mouth to reply but just then Brad Parker stuck his head in the locker room and called, “Kepner, try to get here early tomorrow. We just got an exploratory laparotomy scheduled with Baker and he said you can scrub in if you want. You in? Gonna be cool.”

“Yes, I'll be here.” April squealed. She would be only the second intern to actually get into an operating room, despite being on a non-surgical rotation. Jackson and Charles were green with jealousy.

“Booya!” Parker replied.

“Booyourass” Jackson muttered under his breath.

  
  


Even though April was shifting to a surgical rotation, she was sad to enter her final week on Internal Medicine. She felt she had learned something every single day on the IM service. Besides that, Brad Parker was so much fun to be around. He showed up every day with a smile on his face and a positive attitude that withstood any amount of bad developments.

“How do you do it?” April had asked him the previous week. “How do you stay so upbeat when this sort of thing happens?”

_This sort of thing_ in this case meant  Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CKD), a fatal brain disease that appears to act like Alzheimer's disease. The patient was a twenty four year old father of two. His symptoms included trouble concentrating, personality changes, memory problems, social withdrawal, muscle spasms and a lack of coordination. They had brought in neuro, who had confirmed the preliminary diagnosis, but it was a disease for which there was no treatment or cure. This had been confirmed by none other than Derek Shepard, at Seattle Grace, the preeminent neuro surgeon on the west coast.

The kudos they had received for the _catch_ had been little comfort to April, who Parker had found hysterically crying back by the hospital loading dock.

“Because the alternative is this.” Brad had told her, not unkindly. “Sometimes we just can't fix things. If you let that break you down, you won't last. And if you can't stick, who will be here to fix the things we can fix?”

“But it's just so unfair.” April insisted as she dabbed at her teary eyes with the handkerchief Parker had lent her.

“True, but you'd better get used to that too.” he replied.

“Look, April, you have all the makings of a good doctor, like a really good doctor. Great even, maybe. But you need to get control of your emotions.”

“Are you saying I have to stop caring? Because if so...”

“No, April, I'm not saying that. I'm saying you have to learn how to care in a way that will help you, not hurt you.” Doctor Parker explained patiently.

“H..how do I do that?” April asked.

“Experience will help. But you need to learn to appreciate the wins more than the losses. Yeah, the CKD is a devastating diagnosis. But what else did we do today?”

“We had that kid with appendicitis.”

“You know that not too long ago people died of that shit? And we caught it, diagnosed it, and got it treated before there was any danger of sepsis. Pretty solid win.”

April nodded. “We had the STD.”

“Syphilis, a damn serious STD. And really contagious. We probably saved more than one person a whole boatload of hell with that one. What else?”

“The patient with psoriasis.”

“You think she regrets coming to us for help? A little phototherapy and that shit is done. Now do you get the point, Kepner?”

“I think so.”

“Good, because today we kicked ass on some pretty nasty stuff. And we need to celebrate that instead of letting that frickin CKD ruin us. Because tomorrow there is going to be more shit for us to deal with and people counting on us and we gotta treat everyone of them believing we are going to win.”

April gave him a teary smile and nodded and wished she could stay on his service forever instead of just one more week.

  
  


Her next to last day with Brad Parker was different though. That upbeat, positive attitude was missing for the first time, replaced by a distracted, easily irritated Doctor Parker, that seemed to have forgotten the excellent pep talk he had given her a week earlier.

So instead, it was April who delivered encouragement to him.

“So that was pretty big. Bacterial meningitis. Do you see much of that?”

“Meningitis?” Brad had answered. “No, fortunately.”

“Well that was a big catch. No doubt we kicked some major ass with that one.” She said brightly.

“Yeah, major ass” he replied without any of his customary enthusiasm.

“I think that deserves a booya.” April told him.

But he ignored her hint. Something is bothering him, she concluded. He never missed an opportunity to  _booya_ .

“Doctor Parker, is something wrong? Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Huh,” he said, as though coming out of a trance. “No, nothing.”

“Are you sure?” she asked again. She was worried. It was so unlike him.

He looked at her and appeared to be considering. “Kepner, get out your notebook.”

She got her notebook out and opened it.

“Take this down.” he instructed. “Twenty eight year old male. Good physical condition. Non-smoker. Experiencing hand weakness, increased incidence of tripping and falling, complains of weakness in legs, feet, ankles, and muscle cramps and twitching in arms, shoulders and tongue.”

“Okay, got it. Now what?”

“Now go do some research and when you come back tomorrow, tell me your diagnosis.”

“This is hardly enough to make a good diagnosis.” she protested.

“April, just give me your best guess, Okay?” Parker was a bit short with her.

“Okay. Best guess.” she agreed.

  
  


The next day, April reported for her last day of her Internal Meds rotation. Parker greeted her with something like his old positive enthusiasm. “Kepner! You ready for your last day in real medicine, before those surgical guys brainwash you into thinking that you're just a few cuts away from curing all man's ills?”

April laughed. “Last chance to convince me otherwise, Doctor Parker.”

“Well, let's get to convincing then.” he answered and off they went to round on their patients.

It was at lunch, with Brad treating April to a cafeteria salad, that she brought up her homework assignment.

“So, I did some research on the sketchy case information you gave me last night.” she volunteered.

Parker paused just before biting into his cheeseburger. “Oh, and what is your finding?”

“I'm thinking early ALS, though I would need to run some tests and do a more thorough examination to be anything like sure.” she answered.

He nodded as he chewed. “ALS, huh?” he answered with his mouth still full. “Prognosis?”

“Well, you know the prognosis is grim. Progressive degeneration and one hundred percent mortality.” she replied. Parker didn't need her to tell him that.

“So, I'm rotating out and missing this case?”

“Yup, afraid you don't get to work this one.” he answered.

“I don't think I mind too much. Pretty crappy diagnosis for a twenty eight year old.”

“Yeah. Some things you just don't want to catch.” he answered.

  
  


It was two weeks later when April was changing out of her scrubs in the locker room and overheard Charles telling Jackson about something he had witnessed that afternoon.

“...the dude literally tripped over a painted line on the floor. Hit a nurse going down and scattered a tray of meds all over the place. Boy was she pissed.”

“Jesus, what a klutz.” Jackson replied. He called over to April, “Hey, Kepner, your boyfriend always that klutzy? He have any trouble, you know, keeping himself under control with you too?” That got an appreciative laugh from Charles.

“My what? For your information, I don't have a boyfriend.” she answered.

“Shocker!” Jackson answered with a smirk, bringing another guffaw from Charles.

“Ha ha. As if there were any males around here worth spending a minute of my time with.”

“Be the best minute of your life.” Jackson retorted.

“Not according to Betsy. But she said something about thirty seconds. Maybe the next thirty seconds would have been an improvement?” April fired back. “But we'll never know, now will we?”

That shut up Intern Jackson Avery, who actually had recently bedded a nurse named Betsy, and couldn't be sure what the young lady was now reporting about it to the other hospital staff.

But April was curious as to what had made Jackson want to draw her into that story anyway.

“So who was it that fell and scattered the meds?” she asked Charles.

“Your hero, Parker.” he responded.

  
  


April found Doctor Parker going over a patient's chart with his current intern, Jason something-or-other.

“Doctor Parker. May I have a word with you, please?”

“April. Decided surgery was too boring and couldn't wait to get back to Internal Meds, huh?”

“Actually, I wanted to discuss a case we started on when I was on your rotation, the ALS?” she answered.

Intern Jason turned to Parker “ALS? We have an ALS patient? Cool!”

“No,” Parker answered him, obviously unhappy that April had brought this up, “we don't have an ALS case. Doctor Kepner here is mistaken. It was a research exercise. Now why don't you go check on our strep culture and update the Torrani chart?”

Parker watched the young intern walk away, telling April, “Serious downgrade there, Kepner. Wish I could get you back.”

“I heard about your fall...” April wasn't going to distracted from her purpose.

“Slow news day. Nobody got caught screwing in front of a security camera?” Brad answered.

“two weeks after you had me research ALS.” April continued in spite of the effort to throw her off.

“Coincidence.” replied Parker.

“A good doctor doesn't believe in coincidence. Everything is connected. Remember telling me that?”

“I remember. How do you?”

April held up her red notebook.

Parker nodded. “Damn notebook doesn't forget anything.” he grumbled.

“Brad! ALS! Is it confirmed?” April sucked her lower lip into her mouth. She had never dreaded being right more in her life.

“Yes. Confirmed.” Brad admitted. He knew her well enough now to understand how much this would hurt her. But she was too smart, too good, to lie to.

Her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh God. Oh God.”

Looking around, Parker gently took her elbow and guided her quickly into a nearby empty room.

“April, keep it together now. I need you to keep it together, for yourself..., for me. Okay?”

April nodded. This can't be happening, she thought. Not to him. He was such a good doctor, a good teacher, a good guy. He was only twenty-eight.

“What are you going to do?” she asked in a small voice. ALS in incurable. One hundred percent fatal. Those two facts kept repeating in her mind.

“Well, I thought about it and decided I would work as long as I could. Hopefully make it through the year. Then, well, I guess we'll see what happens then. It'll be one day at a time, I suppose.” Brad Parker answered.

April was crushed. “This is so unfair.” she cried.

“What did I tell you about fair in this business?”

“That _fair_ is just another word for _carnival_.” she answered. Then the crying started and he held her for a long time, comforting her for his doomed fate.

  
  


Jackson Avery looked down the bar in surprise. Shock might be more descriptive actually. He didn't think April Kepner drank, much less in a bar. For certain, he had never seen her at this bar, which served as the local Mercy West watering hole and hookup emporium.

He didn't know Kepner well at all but he figured he knew her well enough to know she wasn't there for a hookup. That was her roomie's game, not April's. No, she appeared to be there for the booze. And she was already off to a good start there. That made Jackson uneasy. He had never needed to take advantage of an inebriated girl to secure a hookup, and he strongly frowned on those guys who did. He also knew there were plenty of those types frequenting this bar. He even suspected that his buddy Charles might be in that group. And Charles had made a few comments about Kepner's “tight little bod” and how much fun it would be to bang her. Jackson had dismissed it as distasteful but harmless fantasy on his friend's part, figuring he'd never come close to getting any opportunity to act on it. But here she was, already on her second drink, without a wingman to watch her back. It was just a matter of time before the sharks started circling her. Well, fuck, she may be an annoying pain in the ass but nobody deserved that sort of thing. And she is Mercy West family, he reminded himself.

She had just ordered her third drink when Jackson slid onto the stool next to her. “Someone's thirsty tonight.” he indicated the drink the bartender was just setting in front of her.

She glanced to her right and gave him a bleary eyed glare. “Go away.” she answered.

“And miss the chance to enjoy your sparkling company? Not a chance.” he answered. Her eyes were really red. Way too red for two drinks, even if she did down them in only fifteen minutes. Had she been crying?

“Yeah, like you would ever enjoy my company. Isn't there some kind of skank line you should be in?”

“It's actually a waiting list and I'm already on it. As soon as it's my turn and one becomes available, they'll call my name.” he told her.

“Hmm, I'll bet your frequent fucker status gets you to the top of the list too.”

Jackson's first reaction to that was more shock. Not only had he never heard April Kepner come anywhere near a swearword, he never would have pictured her using one. She always seemed so _wholesome_. His second reaction was to laugh. _Frequent fucker?_ He thought that was hilarious.

She observed his amusement. 'Glad I can entertain you while you wait.” she muttered into her glass.

Jackson finished laughing and took a long draw on his beer. “So while you are sitting here guzzling whiskey in a bar and cussing up a storm, where is the real April Kepner?” he asked.

“Look, it's been a really crappy day. So if you don't mind...”

She has been crying, Jackson decided. “You want to talk about it?” he offered. Now what the hell are you doing Avery, he thought?

“As if you really want to.” April sneered. But then she regretted it. Absent from his face was any of the mean ridicule and sarcasm that usually accompanied his interactions with her.

Jackson considered. Did he really want to? Honestly? He was about to give it up when she spoke again.

“If you really are offering though, thank you. I appreciate it.” she said, giving him just a hint of a smile.

Jackson swallowed the words he had been about to utter. He nodded instead. He had seen April Kepner smile before. And he had to admit, she had a very pretty smile. It engaged her entire face. He appreciated people who could smile with their whole face. But this was the first time her smile had been for him, and him alone. And something about it was special, though he was at a loss to understand why. “I really am offering.” he answered. “It might help to talk about it.”

April looked at him closely. God, he is handsome, she thought. His features are perfect and those eyes... But what she was looking for here was sincerity. And she thought she might see it. Of course, it might also be the three whiskeys on an empty stomach.

Just then, Charles Percy landed on the stool on the other side of April and the mood shift was dramatic.

“Wow! Little April Kepner is tying one on! Sweet! The next round is on me. Barkeep!” he called.

“No. No thank you.” said April. “I think I've had enough.”

“Don't be ridiculous. The night is young. We're just getting started. Right Jackman?” Charles bellowed and winked at Jackson.

“No, she says she's had enough.” Jackson answered his friend. The thought flashed into Jackson's head that his suspicions may have been correct. Was Charles trying to take advantage of Kepner?

“Oh, one more can't hurt and might help a lot. Besides, we got you, don't we Jackman?”

“No.” said April in a small voice. Jackson thought she might be feeling sick.

But Charles was ignoring both of them. “Another whiskey for the lady and a beer for me and my buddy over there.” Charles was telling the bartender. He winked at Jackson. “Another whiskey and we can take her home, both of us.” he didn't even bother trying to keep April from hearing him. His eyes were lit with an unpleasant light. Jackson's eyes glittered as well. But with an entirely different sort of light.

He dragged Charles off the stool and threw him against the wall nearby. Conversation in the bar stopped as everyone turned their attention to the two men. Despite Charles outweighing Jackson by close to a hundred pounds, Jackson had no fear for himself. And he was too furious to care anyway.

“She said _no_ , asshole. No means no. Understand?”

Percy was terrified. He was genuinely afraid his friend was going to hurt him. Badly. He nodded as best he could with Jacksons hands pinning him to the wall by the lapels of his shirt.

“Let me be very clear on this, Charles. If I ever hear even a hint that you've tried to take advantage of anyone like this, ever, then I am going to find you and kick your ass like it's never been kicked. Understand?”

Percy nodded again, trying desperately not to pee in his pants.

“I need more from you than that.” Jackson growled.

“Yes, yes I understand. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry.” Charles had turned into a blubbering lump at this point.

Mastering his anger, Jackson took a deep breath and released his friends shirt. He stepped back away from him and remembered April. Turning, he went to where she still sat on her stool. She looked pretty miserable. “Let's get you home.” he said gently.

“Okay.” she agreed.

  
  


He held her hair as she vomited into the trash can on the curb outside her building. She was way too tiny and unused to drinking to down three whiskeys in thirty minutes. He hoped for her sake she didn't have an early shift at the hospital the next day.

He got her back to her apartment and waited in the living room while she dragged herself into the shower, a necessity after her gastric pyrotechnics on the way home from the bar. When she reappeared ten minutes later, she was wearing pink pajamas and fuzzy slippers and her hair was still very damp from the shower.

“Would you like some tea?” she asked him.

“If you're having some, sure.” he answered, impressed that she was so quickly recovering from her whiskey poisoning.

“Better start re hydrating or it will be even worse.” she explained as she put the teapot on to boil.

There was no conversation while the water warmed. For his part, Jackson was okay with that. He didn't see the need to make small talk and figured April was probably still too wrung out to want to anyway. So he just sat and waited and she served the tea once it was ready.

They sat at the table and sipped the hot tea, It was April who finally broke the silence. “Thank you.” she said.

“Don't mention it.” he answered. “There's no place for that shit anywhere, anytime.”

“What?” she had asked.

Jackson realized he wasn't sure what she had thanked him for. “Uh, what are we talking about again?”

“I was thanking you for getting me home safely after I made an idiot of myself drinking too much.” she answered. “What did you think I was talking about?”

“The same.” he answered. Maybe it was better she wasn't aware of what he was pretty sure Charles had wanted to do. It would have made her very uncomfortable at the hospital.

“Now maybe you want to tell me how that came about in the first place?” he asked.

Again April peered at him, considering. She needed someone to talk to. Maybe there was more to Jackson Avery than she thought. He had, after all, come this close to beating the shit out of his best friend to protect her. That was something.

“Parker has ALS.” she began.

  
  


“April,” Jackson stuck his head in the door of the skills lab where April was practicing her suturing technique, “Parker just told Benson he's done.”

April looked up, eyes wide. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, heard the Residents talking about it.” he answered.

“Okay, thanks.” she said, hurriedly putting away her materials.

“Sure.” Jackson said, ducking back out of the doorway.

April hurried toward the Internal Medicine examination suite. A nurse there said she'd seen Doctor Parker headed into the Resident's locker room. She found him there.

About eight weeks after he told April, all of Mercy West found out about Brad Parker's ALS. As his symptoms became more pronounced, Bill Benson, hospital Chief, decided to make a public announcement.

Now, months later, the ALS had been progressing steadily. Falling had become more frequent. Parker had begun to drop things as well and two patients had noticed his arm twitch during examinations. Swallowing was sometimes more of an effort and his speech had begun to slur a little. It was Parker himself who reluctantly made the call. He wanted to bow out before his job effectiveness began to suffer.

Wordlessly, April went to him and embraced him. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her clean, sweet smelling hair. Finally he said, “Kepner, don't start that crying shit again. I was soaked all the way home last time.”

“Shut up. I'll cry if I want to.” she protested, and tears rimmed her eyes as though to prove the right. “Are you sure it's time. Already?”

“Yes, April, I'm sure. I want to leave while I can still walk out, while I still have more wins than losses.”

“There aren't enough wins in the whole building in a year to make up for this.” she argued.

“April, don't you dare let me down now. I taught you better than that. Now tell me what you did today.”

And just as he had once long ago, Brad Parker pulled out her day's triumphs and held them up as evidence that once again, April Kepner had kicked ass against all manner of bad things. Unlike the previous time though, it didn't make her feel better. All it did was remind her of what they were losing. Of what she was losing.

“Come on April, say it with me.” But she could only shake her head, words impossible.

“Come on. Try. For me.” he pleaded. That left her no choice, did it?

“Booya!” they said together. And for the last time Brad Parker found his Mercy West lab coat being soaked by April Kepner's tears.

  
  


_**Two Years Later** _

Derek Shepard shook the young resident's hand. “Welcome to Seattle Grace, or should I say Seattle Grace Mercy West.”

“Thank you, sir, a pleasure to meet you.” answered the resident in the bright orange scrubs.

“Now Avery is a name I'll certainly have no trouble remembering.” Derek added.

“Yes sir, I get that a lot.” answered Jackson.

April almost felt sorry for him. They had gone from being openly antagonistic toward each other to something like a friendship, although they were so different in every way, she doubted it would ever really become a strong friendship. But comfortable was a big improvement over the way they had started.

“And you are?”

April found herself being offered Derek Shepard's hand. THE Derek Shepard. Don't faint, don't faint, she told herself.

“Doctor Shepard.” she said aloud, grasping his hand and shaking it vigorously.

“Uh, no, that's actually who I am. What is your name?” Derek smiled, which only made it harder for her. Meanwhile, she was aware of Jackson's amused expression to her right. Friend or not, he would torture her for this.

“Kepner, Sir, April Kepner.” she stammered.

“Kepner? Why does that sound familiar? Have we ever met?”

“Oh, no, Doctor Shepard. We've never met. Have you ever been to Moline, OH? What? Of course you haven't. No one goes there. Well, obviously some people are there. Some Kepners. That's why I brought it up. Uh, stop talking April. Yup, stopping now.” Is there a hole nearby I can just crawl into, she thought to herself?

“Kepner. That's it. A couple of years ago we had a CKD case referred from Mercy West. Parker and Kepner. I remember now. Internal Med resident and his fresh off the boat intern caught it.”

“Yes, sir. That was Brad Parker. He was the Resident. I was his intern that rotation.

“So where is this Internist? I hope we got him too.”

'Uh, no sir, I'm afraid Doctor Parker had to leave medicine. ALS.”

Shepard's smile evaporated. “Oh, shit, that's a terrible break. I'm so sorry.”

April nodded. “Thank you, Doctor Shepard. It's a big loss.”

“Well, still, that CKD was a great catch. Good work, Kepner.”

April blushed. “Thank you, sir.”

Derek Shepard introduced himself to Charles Percy and Reed Adamson and then took his leave of the new Residents. But as he walked away he glanced back at April Kepner. The case notes had indicated the intern had played a major role in diagnosing that CKD. She was quirky alright. But, in his experience, smart and quirky often made for exceptional surgeons.

He would remember this months later, when as the newly appointed Chief of Staff, one of his first moves was to hire back April Kepner, despite the airway disaster that led to her dismissal.

  
  


_**Three Years After That** _

“You get it now.”

“I do.” she replied. Then April Kepner told his family what his donated organs would mean to people all over the country.

Later, she stopped by and found him alone in his room.

“Where are they all?” she asked.

Haltingly he replied, “Sent them to go get dinner. They'll need to be strong tomorrow.”

“Still putting everyone else ahead of yourself.” she said. I will not cry, she promised herself.

“Just scoring wins where I can get them.” he managed to croak out around his ventilator.

“Wins.” she repeated, shaking her head. “How can you talk about wins when, in a few hours...”

“April, do I have to fire you again?” Brad asked her. “Besides, an hour ago you read off a list of wins I'll get that will keep me on top for years.”

April forced herself to smile. “It's true. You're crushing it.”

She looked at him and thought back to everything he had taught her at Mercy West.

“You know, I'm the surgeon..., no, the doctor, I am today because of you.” she told him.

He looked at her and smiled his old Brad Parker smile.

“Booya!” he said.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to fill in some of the blanks in my favorite Grey's character's story. How did April Kepner become such a great doctor? How did she become friends with Jackson when he was so much different than her? And why would Derek Shepard hire her back after the missed airway disaster got her dismissed?  
> Besides the Mercy West four, there was one other Mercy West character that eventually showed up (briefly) on Greys S09X17. Brad Parker was the organ donor with ALS who chose to die and donate rather than risk losing his organs to infection. I think he is a great vehicle to use to tie up all these loose ends. Hope you did too.  
> Thanks for reading and always love comments.


End file.
